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I have a bit of an obsession with maps. Old road maps, tourist maps, and antique maps, I love them all!. I thought it would be great to make a personalized map pillow with my favorite vintage maps.

Don’t panic no sewing is involved. When I say make a vintage map pillow, what I mean is design the cover for the pillow and get someone else to print and make it.

I show you how to edit the map of your choice in a free editing program (CANVA). Then, how to add text and other images to your map. Which you can then send it off to a photo lab to get printed onto a pillow/cushion of your choice.

How To Make A Personalized Cool Vintage Map Pillow

A vintage map pillow will make a fantastic personalized gift. My in-laws are from Bergen in Norway and I have designed a double-sided vintage map pillow as a gift for them.

I added some extra elements like Norwegian stamps and luggage labels to the maps to personalize the pillows even more.

Of course, you don’t have to stick to maps you can download any of the wonderful vintage images and pictures on this site and edit them ready to print on a pillow. I think that some of the images in my vintage cactus paintings will make a fabulous pillow.

How to edit pictures for your vintage map pillow

I will show you how to edit your image in Canva to design a pillow, but your online printers often have their own software that will help you with pillow designs.

1.. First, go to Canva.com and create an account. A free account will be perfectly fine for this project.

On the Canva home page in the top right-hand corner, there is a box marked “Custom Design”. Click on this box and enter the dimensions of your pillow cover.

I designed a standard square pillow size of 18inches square.

2. Next, upload the maps that you are going to use for your pillow design.

You can scan in any map you want or simply download one of the many maps available on Pictureboxblue. Also, upload any other images you would like to add to the pillow. I uploaded some Norwegian luggage labels to add to the pillow designs. To upload the images, click on the “Uploads” menu button. This is on the far left of the screen.

3. Then, to place the map image onto the canvas, click the “elements” menu button on the far left of the screen. Then, select grids and select the first option, the single square picture icon (the one with the cloud in the sky).

4. Next, the maps and the images are added to the grid one by one, by drag and drop. Click on the uploaded map first and drag it to the grid and then drop it in.

Add any other images you would like on the map one by one. Clicking and dragging the corners of each image once selected with the mouse will resize them.

To add any text to your design, click the text menu button on the far left-hand side of the screen. Then click the “add text box” button. You can choose your font type, size, and color. Position the text by dragging and dropping with the mouse.

5. Finally, once you are happy with your vintage map pillow design, download the jpg file to your computer. To do this, click on the publish button on the top right of the screen and select the download option.

Printing a Vintage Map Pillow

Most photo printing services these days offer the option to print a photo onto a pillow/cushion, such as Amazon.

It is often a case of shopping around for the best price and deals. All the services are basically the same. You simply upload your image onto a mock-up of the pillow. Some photo printing services offer you the choice of different fabrics and piping.

For my vintage map pillow, I chose double-sided printing and piping for my pillows. I printed a different map on each side. In the past, I have printed map pillows on both faux suede and canvas fabrics and have been very happy with both finishes.

The Zodiac star charts on Pictureboxblue would also make great personalized printed pillows.

I think that these vintage map pillows make a fabulous personalized gift. You could print one for your loved one using maps of places special to you.

There is a tutorial here for a personalized map corkboard that would go great with these pillows. If you are making map pillows to give as a gift, one of these embroidered map ornaments would be a great accompaniment.